Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was named senior adviser to the president on Monday, an appointment that would further entangle the incoming White House team in a web of potential conflicts of interest and accusations of nepotism, according to a report in The Guardian.
For months, Kushner has had Trump’s ear in an informal role alongside the businessman’s three grown children: Donald Jr, Eric and Kushner’s wife, Ivanka. In a statement, Trump’s transition team said that Kushner had “formed an effective leadership team” with the president-elect’s chosen chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and his chief strategist, Steve Bannon.
Kushner, 35, will need to argue that a federal anti-nepotism law does not apply to him. The law, enacted in 1967 after John F Kennedy appointed his brother as attorney general, prohibits any federal official from hiring family members to an agency or office which he or she leads.
The law has loopholes, however. Ethics experts say that Kushner could retain a technically unofficial role, for instance as a “consultant”, in order to skirt the law. Trump’s transition team said Kushner “has chosen to forego his salary while serving in the administration”.
Attorneys for Kushner reportedly want to argue that the White House is technically not an agency and that therefore Trump and Kushner would be exempt from nepotism rules. Trump’s transition team has argued that this loophole would also make Trump exempt from his own possible conflicts of interest.
WilmerHale, a law firm contracted by Kushner, has said in a statement that he is “committed to complying with federal ethics laws” and has coordinated with the Office of Government Ethics.
Kushner Companies has invested billions in real estate around the US in the last decade and relies heavily on foreign investment and lenders.
Experts have said that even should Kushner place holdings in a blind trust, he would still test ethics laws. Kushner will be required to make some financial disclosures, and would continuously test the limits of the law in the White House.
Trump’s son-in-law played a large role throughout the campaign, for instance cutting out one of the businessman’s early allies and advisers, New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Kushner’s father, convicted more than a decade ago on counts of tax evasion and illegal campaign donations, was sent to prison by Christie, then a prosecutor.
Kushner has advised Trump to bring Wall Street veterans into his team, and the president-elect has suggested that his son-in-law could help lead talks in foreign relations. In November, he said Kushner, an Orthodox Jew, could help “do peace in the Middle East”.
